Anglers are warned: Don’t EAT our fish

Sarah Page

Cultural differences between Eastern European and British fishermen has led an award-winning fishery to take action.

Sumners Ponds at Barns Green has erected signs in seven different languages warning that anglers must return fish to the water after catching them.

Two full-time bailiffs are also employed at the campsite and fishery to make sure that UK fishing laws are not broken.

Sumners Ponds was featured on a Channel 4 ‘Food Unwrapped’ TV show this week when the programme highlighted how Polish people, in particular, see carp as a national delicacy - many choosing it as their favourite Christmas dinner. UK fishermen catch carp purely for sport.

Sumners Ponds bookings manager Matt Gale explained later that the fishery now had signs in seven different languages explaing the ‘catch and return’ rule.

He said the fishery had experienced a couple of instances of fishermen taking the fish “but it’s not really a problem. It’s happened a couple of times because Eastern Europeans don’t understand they cannot keep their catch, because they do it at home. Sometimes we just have to be aware of it.”

He added: “You wouldn’t want to eat carp out of our lakes - they would taste really muddy. In Eastern Europe they have them in farm lakes.”